By Shamindra Ferdinando

The SLPP rebel group wouldn’t get involved in ongoing efforts to appoint a new Prime Minister later this year, MP Prof. Channa Jayasumana said.The former State Minister said that he didn’t want Premier Dinesh Gunawardena replaced in a hurry.

The Anuradhapura District MP said so when The Island sought an explanation regarding his shocking revelation in parliament on Tuesday (06) of the rebel group being approached for support in the campaign to oust the incumbent PM.

The statement was made against the backdrop of an influential section of the SLPP parliamentary group asserting that ousted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa should return to Parliament as PM as it was he who got the 2019 mandate. Speculation is also rife of another group promoting a lawmaker for the post of PM.

Referring to what Prof. Jayasumana called Premier Gunawardena’s sarcastic comment regarding lawmakers switching sides during his long parliamentary career, the new entrant said that having entered Parliament at the last parliamentary election in August 2020, he had already seen three Premiers. Prof. Jayasumana said that he didn’t want to see another Premier later this year.The rebel SLPP group consists of 13 members.Prof. Jayasumana said that reference was made to the ongoing battle when he got an opportunity to address Parliament on Tuesday following quite an effort made by the group.

“Our group was not allocated time during the three-day debate on the interim budget presented by President Ranil Wickremesinghe, in his capacity as the Finance Minister,” Prof. Jayasumana said.The medical academic asserted that denying them time to address the parliament seemed to be part of the overall strategy meant to coerce them. Responding to another query, MP Jayasumana said that he and MP Thilak Rajapaksa received the opportunity to speak on Tuesday following Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena’s intervention.

“We were allocated time at the Speaker’s discretion. On Wednesday, too, two of their members, Wasantha Yapa Bandara and Dr. Upul Galappaththy, were allocated time on the intervention of the Speaker,” Prof. Jayasumana said.

Appreciating the intervention made by the Speaker, Prof. Jayasumana said that they should be accommodated on the time allocated to the government or the Opposition. At the onset of the 9th Parliament, the government was allocated 60 percent of a particular day’s time and the rest to the Opposition. This has been based on the government having 145 seats and the SJB led Opposition the remaining seats. In spite of the breaking up of the SLPP group several months ago, the formula hadn’t been changed, Prof. Jayasumana said. The former health minister questioned the rationale in the SLPP allocating time to other dissident groups while depriving only them the required time to address parliament.

Asked whether they brought this matter to the notice of President Wickremesinghe, Prof. Jayasumana said that in addition to the President, they briefed Premier Gunawardena, Chief Government Whip Prasanna Ranatunga as well as Leader of the House Susil Premjayantha of the injustice done to them. All of them accepted that the SLPP rebels should be allocated time though they so far haven’t intervened in this matter, the MP said.

Prof. Jayasumana said that they made representations to Speaker Abeywardena in this regard several times. The Speaker promised to take up this issue with the government and the Opposition and resolve the matter on Thursday (08).

He asked whether the parliamentary business was controlled by elements outside the House. The MP said that in spite of the developing political-economic-social crisis some of those at the helm of political apparatus seemed to still engage in consolidating their positions.The MP warned that it would be a grave mistake on the part of the government to believe the country was now out of the woods. Such an assessment based on staff-level agreement with the IMF for USD 2.9 bn over a four-year period would be catastrophic, Prof Jayasumana said.